David Robertson (University of Victoria)
Naming Chinook Jargon
The Pacific Northwest “trade language” (pidgin) Chinook Jargon originally lacked a name. As Northwesterners became familiar with it, it gained a variety of glottonyms. This study examines how the standardly recognized name “Chinook Jargon” trumped its competitors. The history that emerges is one of 19th-century incipient recognition of contact languages, and of Euro-American metalinguistic attitudes toward nonstandard varieties of languages.… Read More
